Water Planning Report Has National Impact

USC Regional and Urban Planning lecturer Claudia Baldwin has co-authored a comprehensive report into Australia's water planning practices which already has sent more than a few ripples across the country.

Ms Baldwin and two researchers from New South Wales, Mark Hamstead and Vanessa O'Keefe, produced the report after winning a National Water Commission (NWC) competitive tender last year.

Ms Baldwin said the report, which highlights some of the best water management practices across Australia, had already prompted the NWC to take action.

The National Water Commission, as a result of our report, is funding a project that will involve applying some of the good practices of three particular new water planning processes around the country.

The NWC also is allocating millions of dollars for funding new postgraduate courses in water planning, establishing best-practice guidelines for water planning, doing training with local water planners and establishing an evaluation system for continuing improvement.

This is going to have a huge impact on water planning in Australia.

Ms Baldwin said she and her co-authors had sought to determine how far Australia had progressed since water planning first started more than a decade ago.

Read the full report article here...

About the Waterlines Report

Water planning is a key aspect of the 2004 Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative (NWI) and one of the most important tools for achieving sustainable use of water. The type of water planning with which the NWI and this report is concerned is water allocation/water sharing planning.

Case studies were selected to provide a representation of the main approaches to water planning in Australian jurisdictions. The report discusses a range of issues and a list of noteworthy practices and areas for development.

This report is an analysis of current practices and lessons learned in water planning, drawn from 11 case studies of water plans across Australia.